Aeromur are already reported to be working on a Plan B

Round-up of Corvera airport latest this week

Those waiting for positive news regarding the future of the Region of Murcia International Airport at Corvera have not had a good week, with the only development of note being that the European Commission for Competition has once more postponed its decision regarding the validity of the regional government loan which would allow concessionaire Aeromur to go ahead with opening the facility.

The new deadline set by the Commission is 18th December, exactly three months after the date on which the regional government forecast that the airport would be opened this autumn, and this appears to make it extremely unlikely that a decision will be forthcoming before 1st November. On that date Commissioner Joaquín Almunia relinquishes his post and hands over to the Margrethe Vestager from Denmark, a changeover which could imply further delays in the process.

In addition Mrs Vestager’s arrival could coincide with an overhaul of the team supporting her, in which case yet further delays would ensue, and as a result the regional government’s latest target date of 2nd April for opening Corvera would also be in severe jeopardy, meaning the airport may not open before local elections in May as hoped.

Last week further technical inspections were carried out at the airport in anticipation of a decision from Brussels being imminent, but it seems that the customary optimism within the regional government is now being replaced by an undercurrent of grave doubt regarding the future of the new airport. While at Corvera technical inspections are being performed and the loan to Aeromur hangs by a thread, other airports are already making deals with airlines for next summer: Alicante-Elche has confirmed that direct flights to and from Venice will resume next July after a three-year interruption, and airlines are already planning their schedules for next summer.

In the light of this, even if an opening ceremony were to be held next April it’s hard to see how it could be followed immediately by a full flight schedule for the summer.

All of these doubts notwithstanding, in some aspects the preparations for opening are going ahead as if nothing were the matter. It has been reported that the new airport will have an initial payroll of sixty employees, twenty of which have already been contracted by Aeromur.

The rest of the workforce will have to be in place by mid-February if the airport is to receive authorization from the national air safety agency to open in April, and this in turn means that staff will have to complete all the training necessary. At the same time a baggage handling agency will have to be contracted, a head of operational safety will have to be recruited, provisions will have to be made for passengers of reduced mobility and another agency will have to be in place in order to handle fuel supplies at the airport.

Before the final authorization is issued environmental officers, operational technicians and coordinators, air controllers and cleaning staff must also be contracted onto the airport’s payroll.

In short, there is a lot of work still to be done, and little of it can start while uncertainty remains over the decision from Brussels regarding the government loan. As a result it’s not surprising that regional newspaper La Verdad reports that the government and Aeromur are working on a “Plan B” in case the European Commission gives the thumbs-down.

The details of this Plan B are not clear, but it seems certain that Aeromur would continue to hold the licence to run the airport if and when it opens. The government already rescinded the contract last year, only to reinstate it shortly afterwards, and a repeat of that scenario is very unlikely.

One of the priorities of the government is to recover the 178 million euros it effectively sacrificed last year as the guarantor of a previous bank loan to Aeromur, and the concessionaire would be obliged to repay this amount. Part of this amount has already had to be re-financed over a ten-year period, but interest continues to accumulate on the loan capital.

Meanwhile, the job of putting a brave face on things appears to have fallen to Manuel Campos, the regional minister for Development. Sr Campos still hopes that the airport will be fully certified before 2nd April, although he recognizes that if this is not the case the opening of Corvera will have to be put back again to the second half of next year.

As for negotiating flight schedules with airlines, the minister sees no reason for there being any problems, and he also sidesteps the issue of compensation being paid to Aena in the event of San Javier airport being forced to close. In his view the previous verbal agreements with national government cover any such payment, despite recent indications to the contrary from members of the government in Madrid.

The only fly in the ointment mentioned by Sr Campos in his latest statements is that the loan guarantee issued in 2010 by the regional government was, in hindsight, perhaps not such a good idea, but nonetheless he remains adamant that Corvera will open and be successful in the foreseeable future.

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